Night Meets Light - a Dixie Dregs Cover - recorded by Robert Bone and Mike Reidy

This is a remake/cover of the Dixie Dregs song, Night Meets Light, that I just recently finished mixing and mastering a couple of weeks ago.
 
My friend, Mike Reidy, plays the guitar parts, and the remaining instruments were played/sequenced up by me on my keyboards (violin, keys, bass, and drums).  Transcribing the drums took me almost 3 weeks, because they are different pretty much all through the song.  Then, near the end, the drums get pretty active, and that was a challenge to faithfully decipher.
 
Mike and I picked this song to do, because we both love its beauty and flow, and we also used it to get better at the whole music production thing.  We didn't realize up front, that there are about a zillion meter changes, all through the song.  When Steve Morse wrote it, he didn't realize it either - he just sort of wrote it from the melody, and it all sprung forth from there.
 
I hope you guys like it :)
 
https://youtu.be/YoR2sxUSEbE
 
Bob Bone

Quite a task I would imagine, but you've certainly done it justice, this is really good! Bass sounds great, nice work there, and top marks for the guitar playing.

Great job putting this together Bob! Very complex piece.
 
Regards,
Dan

Hey - sorry for not getting back here - I have been CRAZY busy working up the presets for a Genesis tribute project I am launching here from Chicago, heading out this Spring.
 
Thank you ALL for your kind words.  My friend, Mike Reidy, and I picked Night Meets Light to cover, because we both have a deep love and appreciation for the Dixie Dregs and Steve Morse, and for that song - and we wanted to get better at music production, so we picked a song with lots of challenges, where beyond the music itself, we could actually get a bit of a measurable comparative on how well we did - against the original.  
 
Certain things were different - I thought there was a bit too much reverb on the original, so that was toned down, and I have a few levels tweaked here and there - a bit more low end in our cover, for example.
 
For ME, the hardest two challenges were: 1) Trying to faithfully transcribe the drums, because of all the meter changes and because they are incredibly melodic and building to flat-out insane in the ending guitar solo section, and 2) Trying to get the sampled sounds I triggered with midi (all parts but the guitars - bass, drums, keys, and violin), to sound real AND approximate the playing done by the real instruments from the original song.  The drums, in particular, were run through a boatload of hardware, but the attention to detail in the transcription and sequencing of the drums REALLY paid off, and I think they came out pretty well.
 
Again, for Mike and I, the whole project was a combo of a labor of love for the song, and a means for us to get better at music production, and have some sort of way of gauging the success or failure of our efforts.  We both learned a TON of stuff, and will be leaping into the fray again with some original music, once I get the Genesis project closer to launch.  THAT is really coming along as well - I just spent a few hours this past Saturday, working with the drummer on the Seconds Out version of Firth of Fifth - that middle section has some brutal meter changes, one measure after another at a different meter.
 
Anyways - I will jump in later tonight, in the wee hours, and give some other songs a listen and some feedback - thanks again to all.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Wow Bob, you guys have done great job on this. I see that you started this back in 2012 (listening to Fainting in Coils as well) so this certainly is a labour of love (and it shows). Love the Dregs and it's no joke trying to cover them.
 
Excellent job by both of you!!

Looking forward to listening to your work Bob.
 
Merry Christmas!!

Wayfarer
Very well done! From the quintessential jazz-rock fusion album. At least it is to me. There isn't a mediocre song on it.
 
I'm curious as to why you tried to duplicate the drums though. Why not just do your own thing with them?
 
Bill

Well, we were primarily interested in learning while using this project to cover many bases in that quest.  I chose to try to faithfully transcribe the drums, because of the challenge, and for what I learned in the process.
 
Thanks for listening, and for your feedback.
 
Bob Bone